Bokeh – How to Make Portraits Pop!

Bokeh comes from the Japanese word boke (ボケ), which means “blur” or “haze”, or boke-aji, the “blur quality.” Bokeh is pronounced BOH-Kə or BOH-kay.

~According to Nikon USA’s website.

Bokeh is a technique that generally gives portraits a pleasing aesthetic while drawing the eye towards the subject–making the model pop out. The trick is to have a lens that can open up to at least F 2.8 or wider (e.g., F 2 or F 1.4). These wider apertures are referred to as fast apertures.

So, making a portrait with bokeh (soft blurry background) using a DSLR can be as simple as:

Setting your camera to aperture priority.

Adjusting your aperture to F 2.8.

Having your model stand in front of a wall with the wall about two metres behind them.

Focusing on the model and then clicking.

Check out the examples below.

Portrait using wide aperture — more bokeh

Portrait with aperture set to f2.8.

F 2.8 – wide aperture: handrail, light and painting are out-of-focus or bokeh. i.e. short depth of field (DOF).

Portrait using narrow aperture — little bokeh

Portrait with aperture set to f11.

F 11 – narrow aperture: handrail, lamp, and painting are slightly in focus. i.e. long depth of field (DOF).